How a PLM Software Can Help You Accelerate Product Innovation?

Product life cycles are getting shorter as the world market becomes more and more competitive. Therefore, being early in the development and marketing of a new product can be a serious competitive advantage as well as a financial one.

L’Oréal, the world leader in the cosmetic industry, invested over 900 million dollars in 2016 for research and development. Innovation is a central strategy for the world leader, could that be the recipe to their success?

In general, 64 ideas may arise after a marketing meeting, 16 of which will make it through a first filter. Then, 8 could past a concept test, and 4 prototypes can be created. Lastly, 2 will pass the market test and will be launched with one being a true success. Therefore, having an efficient and quick process is important in order to be reused and cost-efficient.

Some simple steps to accelerate product innovation in the cosmetic industry:

1. Centralise all product information: for one consistent and structured database to minimise mistakes and increase traceability.
2. Master New Product Development processes: innovate all the while reducing costs and time to market.
3. Facilitate collaboration with partners and subcontractors: helps with accuracy and accomplishing everyone’s needs to get the product launched with fewer obstacles such as miscommunication.
4. Manage product packaging and artwork: for quick approvals and changes to commercialise a product that is aesthetically attractive.
5. Optimise your product portfolio: most companies try to improve at least a third of their product seasonally or yearly.
6. Analyse product performance: in order to evaluate products success and ROI

How can a PLM software help in the cosmetic industry?

Cosmetic industry faces numerous challenges such as trends, a number of reference products and strict regulations. Facing such challenges requires transparency and the ability to innovate consistently. These are challenges that Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) is built to help with. It is ideal to organise and streamline the process for faster product innovation.

How does a PLM work exactly for cosmetic products?

PLM starts with the initial idea of a product and follows by combining all the information needed for the product design.

It will help you to:

• Centralise and manage all product-related data,
• Collaborate efficiently with your suppliers and partners,
• Track product evolution through users updates and revisions,
• Comply with current regulations,
• Optimise and facilitate international expansion – labelling, regulatory compliance, etc.

Followed by integrating all the above into projects that will be put into workflows to push the status of all the item’s lifecycle, all the while being able to produce reports on performance.

In the end, the entire process is capitalised in order to be re-used for future product innovations.

A PLM solution is a set of tools that brings integration, strategy and IT support all onto a common platform to create and innovate products correctly and efficiently.

PLM software allows you to:

• Provide an electronic knowledge base of all product’s data,
• Optimise internal processes and create documents related to the product.
• Improve collaboration between all the company departments involved in the product’s design such as Marketing, R&D, or Quality management, enabling workflow management to approve of any changes,
• Have access to comments, exchanges and any other interactions needed for the product – including packaging and artwork.

The long run

Thanks to PLM’s ability to show the “Big Picture” of everything that is going on during the product innovation, it guarantees speed and efficiency for the project. By monitoring and reporting all the steps in the product development, the entire process is accelerated and competitive for today and tomorrow’s market.

To learn more about PLM, and  how Lascom’s  solution can help you manage product innovation, download our free white paper!